My second Ambler, this one published in 1940 and set in 1939. The Second World War has begun. Graham is a munitions engineer in Turkey, heading back to the UK with important information for his company so they can improve the Turkish navy’s guns. The Germans want to stop him.

The Germans make an attempt on his life in Istanbul, and the Turkish security services persuade Graham to travel by ship to Italy instead of the train he’d planned to take. Unfortunately, he discovers soon after departure that the German intelligence chief after him is aboard the ship; and later, the assassin who failed to kill him in Istanbul joins the ship. Fortunately one of the other passengers – there are only a dozen or so – proves to be an agent of Turkish security services.

The German offers Graham a deal: pretend to be ill at a sanatorium controlled by the German, and stay there until the information Graham knows is no longer useful to the Allies. With no way to escape the ship, Graham agrees to the deal, intending to escape as soon as he can.

Ambler keeps up the tension well, but the urbane Nazi spymaster has long since become a cliché, and even if this is the trope’s first appearance that history spoils it. Graham, on the other hand, is a good mix of effectiveness and fear, neither trained nor experienced in what he needs to do to escape his trap but smart enough to figure out a way to get out. There’s a femme fatale, of course, a dancer Graham is introduced to in a club, and she too is on the ship. Graham is drawn to her–and she openly admits to accepting engagements from men–but is faithful to his wife back in England. The most interesting character is a Frenchman, who presents as a socialist simply to annoy his wife but is beginning to find his own arguments compelling.

There’s not much to Journey into Fear (1940, UK), but its brevity and tightness is chiefly why it works so well. I’d like to read more of Ambler’s novels.